In Defense of Bag Fees

Atrios comes out against bag fees for air travel.
I have to say I’m not really very sympathetic to this sentiment, or with the current Southwest Airlines ad campaign slamming bag fees. If you figure an airline is going to believe it can acquire a given amount of revenue per passenger from a given route, the bag fee doesn’t actually alter this level, it simply redistributes it from those traveling with no checked bags to those traveling with multiple bags. Nobody is made worse off on average by this. But at the margin bag fees do encourage people to pack less stuff which reduces the weight of the plane and thus reduced fuel consumption and carbon emissions. I wouldn’t want to argue that bag fees are the cornerstone of the new green economy, but it strikes me as a basic illustration of the point that a lot of customary social practices—from the absence of bag fees to poorly insulated office buildings—are ecologically destructive precisely because they’re economically wasteful. There’s some tension between environmental goals and growth goals, but also some elements of parallelism where in both cases it’s better to develop technologies and business practices that let us our capital and resources more efficiently

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NEW YORK (AP) — The number of global fliers is expected to more than double in the next two decades. In order to carry all those extra passengers, airlines are turning to a technology very few can make work on a large scale: converting trash into fuel. They have no other choice.

Most airlines now charge fees for everything from checked bags to changing your itinerary, resulting in billions of dollars of revenue for carriers and annoyance for travelers. And the fees are going up, with baggages fees up 67% since 2009, and cancellation charges up by 33% for domestic flights. Newly introduced legislation aims to curb these fee hikes.

Canadians pride ourselves on being positive contributors to global affairs. We want to do our part.
The Trudeau government has embraced this national self-image. The prime minister has said that “Canada will take on a new leadership role internationally” and has pledged $2.65 billion to help developing countries tackle climate change as part of this vision of global leadership.

United is ratcheting up stricter carry-on baggage rule enforcement, and the result is that more passengers will be hit with fees. To which many travelers say: Wonderful! This week, word has quickly spread about United Airlines’ crackdown on passengers who attempt to bring oversized carry-ons onto planes. Airline staffers have begun zealously enforcing existing carry-on rules.

United is ratcheting up stricter carry-on baggage rule enforcement, and the result is that more passengers will be hit with fees. To which many travelers say: Wonderful! This week, word has quickly spread about United Airlines’ crackdown on passengers who attempt to bring oversized carry-ons onto planes. Airline staffers have begun zealously enforcing existing carry-on rules.

You give me something I want, we agree on a price, I pay for it. It’s the way the world has worked for thousands of years. These days? Not so much. Today, with an increasing number of businesses, it goes more like this: You provide something I want, we agree on a price, I pay, then you tack on fees to fatten your bottom line.